J. F. Lutsko 2008 EPL 83 46007 doi:10.1209/0295-5075/83/46007
J. F. Lutsko
Show affiliationsThe nucleation of vapor bubbles within a superheated fluid is studied using density functional theory. The nudged elastic band technique is used to find the minimum energy pathway from the metastable uniform liquid to the stable uniform gas thus emphasizing the analogy between the the nucleation problem and that of chemical reactions. The result is both an accurate determination of the critical nucleus and an unbiased description of the density profile at various points along the path between the free energy extrema. This calculation is compared to two other methods: the use of parametrized profiles and constrained minimization of the free energy. The results indicate that the recent claim, based on the constraint method, that bubble nucleation and growth involves an activated instability is incorrect.
Issue 4 (August 2008)
Received 13 June 2008, accepted for publication 3 July 2008
Published 19 August 2008
J. F. Lutsko 2008 EPL 83 46007
Asaph Widmer-Cooper and Peter Harrowell 2005 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 17 S4025
Daniel J Cziczo et al 2009 Environ. Res. Lett. 4 044013
Steven S. Vogt et al. 2010 ApJ 708 1366
Attilio Maccari 2005 Phys. Scr. 72 112
Francis T. O'Donovan et al. 2010 ApJ 710 1551
Y. Li et al. 2008 ApJ 678 1136
Stephen J O'Leary et al 2009 J. Neural Eng. 6 055002
F A-M Bender 2008 Environ. Res. Lett. 3 014001
S. Mereghetti 2001 ApJ 548 L213